Do you wish you could keep the staff in your organisation happy and productive? You know, staff that work together as a team, get their job done, create a great atmosphere for others to work in and for residents to live in?
Over the past 11 years I have been working with healthcare organisations who benchmark their performance in order to learn from the best and to become the best. Many of these organisations have gone on to win industry awards and have experienced continued growth and success.
Fortunately I often get the opportunity to see some great initiatives in action, and now I want to share one of those with you.
The Event
- Rewarding staff for their academic achievements encourages improvement in your teams skills
On Tuesday I was lucky enough to be able to represent QPS Benchmarking at SummitCare’s annual recognition event. While it would have been easy to be distracted by the calibre of guests in the room such as Dr June Heinrich and Dr Sue Macri, the day was all about recognising the great work done by SummitCare’s most exceptional employee’s.
The event which is in it’s 7th year is all about recognising and rewarding staff across the entire organisation including administration, clinical, maintenance, cleaning, catering and activities. Awards included: Major Years of Service, Academic, Managers Choice, Star Recognition Awards and the organisations two National Better Practice Awards.
During the event, it was amazing to see front-line staff become the stars of the show and receive awards for very real achievements.
So why is this so important?
Your Staff
Residential aged care staff are some of the hardest working, most compassionate and caring people I have come across in any industry. They have extremely challenging jobs and face a situation where the wider world will magnify and publish any story relating to a single negative event. On the other hand they are very rarely heralded for their everyday successes in caring for our elderly generation and ensuring they lead productive and positive lives in their later years. It was clear to see on the day that only positives could come out of an event where the staff were supported by the organisations owners, management, their peers, the community and most importantly the people they care for – the residents.
Your Organisation
- Meaningful rewards and recognition are an excellent way to improve morale and performance
It is no secret that the aged care industry faces major challenges in the areas of staff sourcing, staff retention, staff education and achieving an appropriate skill mix. Considering that the future will certainly bring further demand for quality staff from a supply that will at best, struggle to meet this demand. It should be very clear to see that besides being the right thing to do, recognising your employee’s contributions to your organisation can also help address a number of human resources issues that plague many organisations in the industry.
If you can create an environment where people are happy in their jobs, then not only will you retain the majority of your workforce, but you will also be more likely to attract valuable employee’s to your organisation.
The negative impacts an unhappy workforce can have on your organisation are numerous and could cover an entire article themselves – just think about what a high turnover of staff can do to your organisation: low morale, expensive agency staff, loss of knowledge and skills etc. In other words an unhappy workforce can and will negatively impact on everything from the satisfaction of your residents and families, through to your profit levels and financial viability.
You Can Learn
Many organisations can learn very important lessons from SummitCare’s approach to staff recognition. While many would argue that this all seems like common sense, the difference is that SummitCare actually put the time and effort into doing this each and every year and they really do mean it. They have developed a system of recognition that is equally powerful for both the organisation and the employee and it is obviously paying dividends when you consider that as a team they have won a prestigious Australian Business Excellence Award (Silver Award Winners 2009).
I will leave you with a comment made to me at a recent conference which I believe to be true of any good person in any industry. I do however believe that residential aged care organisations who adopt this belief will be much more likely to succeed now and in the marketplace of the future:
“Good staff in the aged care industry are like diamonds, they are extremely valuable and will become more valuable the longer you keep them”.
